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Email letters, September 25, 2013

The latest edition of the CMU student newspaper, Criterion, apparently has little or no criteria as to what is permissible in its rag.

One young columnist informs us that “without it (porn) people would be bored, repressed and frustrated.” She proceeds to tell us that porn strengthens relationships, strokes the ego, makes people feel better about themselves, and even increases work productivity.

Of course, the truth about porn is precisely the opposite of every point she makes: It eventually, if not sooner, destroys relationships; erodes and enslaves the ego; makes people feel worse about themselves, and interrupts work productivity.

One former adult Internet columnist wrote: “Most girls who enter this industry quit after one video. The experience is so painful, horrifying, and embarrassing.”

Is porn cool? Too bad we can’t ask the following porn actresses, ages 27, 26, 20 31, 29, and 32, all who committed suicide. Rates of suicide, drug overdoses and STD s are very high. If being a porn star is so humiliating, how can being a porn consumer make one feel better about oneself?

The Criterion policies state the paper is a “member of the CMU Media Board and abides by that board’s policies, procedures, and code of ethics.” Ethics? You’ve got to be kidding!
From the president on down, the administration and faculty should feel ashamed that the student newspaper accepts such moral rot as legitimate opinion worthy of print. Freedom of the press is one thing. But, freedom without standards eventually chokes on its own vomit.

BILL FORBESWhitewater

Small business owners know
the risks of climate change

Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Colorado this week to survey the damage caused by recent flooding highlights the increasing impact climate change, and the extreme weather it creates, has on small employers, consumers and our economy. The flooding caused an estimated $2 billion in damages to Colorado’s businesses and homes.

There’s no ignoring the fact that Coloradans are being impacted by climate change and extreme weather, and we need to think proactively about how to combat it.

Long before the rains hit our state, Small Business Majority asked small employers what they think about extreme weather. The majority said climate change and extreme weather are a serious problem that disrupts the economy and hurts small businesses. In fact, a third of small employers nationwide had personally been impacted by extreme weather. The countless Colorado businesses affected by the wildfires earlier this summer and the recent heavy rains know all to well how extreme weather can act as a catalyst for catastrophe.

It’s critical we implement extreme weather preparedness plans to address climate change in the short-term, and embrace smart clean energy policies that can help mitigate climate change and prompt innovation in the long-term. Small businesses, and our nation, will be the better for it.

TIM GAUDETTEColorado Outreach Manager
Small Business Majority
Denver

Ron Paul selective in citing
provisions of Constitution

As Gary Harmon reports in the article, “Paul gets big audience for cut-government talk,” Ron Paul’s local audience was predictably enthralled by his simplistic-as-usual incoherence.

Paul’s references to “constitutional principles” raise the question of what those principles are and appeal to those who deem any government action they don’t like “unconstitutional.”

Thus, by endorsing “states rights” and the threat of secession, and by citing the 9th and 10th Amendments, Paul reverts to the Articles of Confederation – not the stronger federal government established by our actual Constitution — and ignores the collectivist purposes prioritized in its Preamble (which eloquently “defines the role of government”).

Paul’s critique of the Federal Reserve relies on the long-discredited monetary theories of the “Austrian School” of economics, but properly focuses attention on the “Feds” failure to prevent the Financial Collapse in late 2008.

Paul voted for the “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists” in 2001, but admirably voted against the Patriot Act and the Iraq War Resolution in 2002.

While Paul’s notion of “civil liberties” enables him to properly criticize NSA surveillance programs, his devotion to “private property rights” (including the right to discriminate) induces him to consider both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (and, of course, “affirmative action”) and most environmental laws “unconstitutional” (which explains his authoring an overtly racist newsletter, about which he later prevaricated). Thus, Paul’s selective version of our Constitution conveniently omits both the “Privileges and Immunities Clause” in Article IV, Section 2, and the Fourteenth Amendment.

As revealed during the Republican primaries in 2012 and reconfirmed yesterday, Paul’s libertarian “alternative” to “ObamaCare” is to allow the uninsured and/or un-wealthy to die outside emergency rooms – the ultimate expression of “personal responsibility.”